Week 111: Leading with Grace – #AlphaFemaleFriday

I am sitting down with a client who does and represents many things I admire: she has her own company, does freelance work on the side, and ultimately, although she has a billion things going on and her mind should probably be one, big nonstop hub of chaos, appear to walk, talk, and lead with grace. While wisdom comes from experience, I think grace can happen at any age. Grace is not just mere appearances—it comes from the inside and glows outward so that any person can recognize its natural eminence.

We get to talking about one of our mutual loves: writing. We agree that one of the biggest challenges is finding the time to sit down and write when you have said billion things going on amongst the chaos. I ask her what she does when she does find the time, and she tells me she simply writes. Just write. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but get started and just write something. All else will follow.

I think the same idea can be applied to leading with grace. You don’t need the leadership title to lead with grace. You don’t even need to turn around to see if anyone is following in your footsteps. Don’t even worry about that. Lead with the notion that you have the ability within yourself to just get started. You don’t need the title or recognition from someone else to tell you, “Yes, you are a leader! Go ahead and lead—you have my permission to do so.” Give yourself the permission, and simply lead. Just lead. You don’t have to be perfect, but try leading and try setting a good example for your own piece of mind.

Cheers,

Kelly

@AlphaFemSociety tweets by @KellyRGonzales

About:

Each week, I take a tip from Lois P. Frankel’s book, Nice Girls Still Don’t Get the Corner Office, and explore how each of these tips affect myself and other women in similar positions on the road to becoming the women we want to be. There are far and few between who are a few steps behind me, and many more who are far advanced. I found that Lois P. Frankel’s advice applied to novice, intermediates, and experts alike. It helped me see that I was already doing right, served as a reminder to keep on doing what I was doing and how to keep that momentum going. The book also showed me areas where I could improve, and gave realistic tips to jump on board. There are a total of 133 tips, and explore one tip per week in a program I call: 133 Weeks to Success.

Join the movement using the hashtag #133WeeksToSuccess with posts which are posted every #AlphaFemaleFriday.